I was jamming with my band. The drummer started playing this funky groove. I added a chord progression to it with my right hand playing this fast melody in staccato. The bassist slapped his bass like he meant it. My lead guitarist continued my melody and added a nice twist to it. All our heads were banging to this incessant beat and we were witnessing an overwhelming moment, which slowly transitioned into something quite perplexing.
Everything slowed down.
I could see the music we were playing.
Everything became the background except for the very sounds of our modern instruments.
In those few seconds, I could feel the essence of the very concept of music, the very existence of an idea that made one feel like infinity and zero concurrently.
I was the most ‘me’ and the least as well.
I could feel everything and nothing at once and the feeling was profuse.
That was the moment. It was the moment and I felt it hit the sweet spot candidly.
Music has always been there for me whenever I needed it. It’s been like a friend whom I could rely upon. My ups, my downs, my smiles, my frowns, my excitement, my boredom and when I just wanted to end everything and drown. It has been my only constant. I have witnessed music pervade my cells bit by bit.
Music provided me with an avenue to express myself. Now, when I go up on a stage, the audience ceases to exist. It’s just my keyboard and me. My hands truly speak for me. All that was suppressed or unexpressed synthesises a collaboration of both my hands and creates this undying melody.
I used to loathe it.
My keyboard classes were the worst part of my week when I was 9 years old. I could never understand the scales and the tempo never took me as a friend. I did succeed at getting straight As in my musical examinations but I never really liked it.
I witnessed a change in my attitude towards music when I was 11 or so. I started to feel a sort of attraction to my instrument. I practised more and I actually started enjoying it. I enjoyed how my hands were complementing each other. It was absolutely occult. I have been taking it seriously since then.
I joined the band and quit the institute because by then, I had understood that music isn’t just one instrument– but it isn’t a million as well.
Music isn’t about skill, Rock School grades, number of pieces or anything of that sort. It’s about this stubbornness to do something. It’s about the eagerness of sharing something of yours with others while they give you something of theirs.
It’s not just about you. It’s all about us.
Music has taught me one thing in life: patience and practice will take you wherever you want to go. I went from a kid who played Jingle Bells on the keyboard to being the bandleader of the band that won an actual battle between the best bands in Delhi NCR.
I have come a long way and only because of patience and practice. Music is an institution which has brought me together to a lot of amazing souls. It has made me who I am today.
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